Product Details

• Actors: John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain
• Directors: Partho Sen Gupta
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Sunny Side Records
• DVD Release Date: March 25, 2008
• Run Time: 180 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0013D8LPE
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,018 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

REMEMBER SHAKTI:WAY OF BEAUTY - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great Shakti Sampler, December 11, 2006

By 

Henry S. Brent "hsbrent" (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Remember Shakti-the Way of Beauty (DVD)

Clocking in at 3 hours, this dvd is packed with performance footage and interviews. It features a 60-minute documentary "Timeless" on the band, starting from the early 70's. John and Zakir speak about their beginnings, their era with L.Shankar and T.H. Vinayakram. Then you get 45 minutes of sound check footage with Remember Shakti from Paris 2004, as well as 55 minutes of the concert from Mumbai 2000. Also includes 2 Live Concerts--the original band from 1976 (Montreux Jazz Festival) as well as Montreux Jazz 2004. Plus, a huge bonus: clips from the Mahavishnu Orchestra at my alma mater -- just four years before I got there, bummer-- Syracuse University, NY, 1972 outside gig at Skytop (Very rare but you can find the entire 45 min. performance-- with Ravi Shankar warming up the MO-- on YouTube now). Highly recommended for all McLaughlin and MO fans.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The name says it all., June 28, 2009

By 

B. Vercher "Being of Sound" (Baton Rouge, LA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Remember Shakti: The Way of Beauty (DVD)

I'll keep this review brief; there is simply not alot for me to say, as music like this speaks for itself. You will be hard-pressed to find another group of musicians who both look and sound so joyous in performance. Everyone in this group is as much a music-lover as they are a music-player. Smiles and laughs abound amongst the bandmates, and at times their improvisations sound more mirthful and giddy than the musicians themselves, and that's saying alot! If this performance doesn't bring a smile to your face, I fear you're beyond hope.
Add to this a wonderful feature-length interview with Messrs. McLaughlin & Hussain, documenting the history of this groundbreaking band, as well as classic clips of performances by the original Shakti (and even one of the 1st Mahavishnu Orchestra!) and you have a DVD package that's worth twice it's price. 5 stars +++

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars On this DVD you'll find some beautyful performances and some boring ones., October 31, 2010

By 

Leonardo Mirenda "keoleomire" (Rome, Italy) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Remember Shakti: The Way of Beauty (DVD)

For example the Montreux one (the one in 1976) is absolutely great. They filmed just one song, "Joy", that features naturally John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain (the two founding members of Shakti) on Guitar and Tabla, and L. Sankar rocking the hell out of his violin, and T.H. "Vikku" Vinaykram on the gatham, a percussion similar to a giant jar. This performance is particularly powerful, all the musicans are in great form!
The same thing about two of the three songs on the more recent (John hair was white) "Live at Bombey" performance. The first one, for example, is great: it's called "Giriraj Sudha" and it features V. Selvaganesh on various percussions, Shankar Mahavadenon the voice (a very strong point on this song), A. K. Pallanivel on the tavil, another indian percussion, John, Zakir and the phenomenal mandolin player U. Shrinvas that wrote the song as well. The melody and the rhythm of this song is so frenetic, and even if John doesn't play a lot on it, the mandolin is still great
The weak point of this performance is of course the next song: "Shringar", featuring Shiv Kumar Sharma on the santur, a strange string instrument played with sticks. This song consist in a boring quarter-hour santur solo. Then percussions start to play, and it becomes more interesting. Only when John touches his strings the song touches the apex, but the rest of it is absolutely boring.
The best song on this performance is the last one: "Bell'alla", written by Zakir (the tabla player), that features also Bhattacharya, an incredible slide guitar player (the slide guitar is not the classic occidental one, but the indian one, that sounds like a sitar) and Sivamani, a drums player, probably with jazz influences.
Debashish's slide guitar and John's Gibson solos are incredible, so great and inventive. No one can beat them. The percussions solos are great too.
The next video is of another Montreux show, but this time dated 2004.
It featured John, Zakir, Shrinvas, Selvaganesh and Mahadaven, but it's quite boring: John guitar uses the same effect all the song long, and the singer says the same sentence during 10 minutes! So this performance is really poor.
So, as I said before, on this DVD there are good ones and bad ones: you just have to choose the right for you.
Anyway, the biggest difference between the old performances and the new ones, (in my opinion) is that while the olds were the "meeting point" between indian and jazz music, the new ones are like indian music with a jazz guitar player, like a stranger. Maybe they forgot what was Shakti about in 70's, or maybe it's just me...